According to a report by the Atlantic Wire, horror film sequels rarely work as compared to sequels of other film genres.
Citing several sequels to horror genre's successful original films, the main problem of sequels was that their attempts to provide backstory to the original does not transcend well to its viewers. The sequel to "The Exorcist" attempted to explain the origin of the horror hovering on one of the main character's past with science fiction, locust plagues badly rendered and the failure of actor Richard Burton to connect and explain the story to his audience. The sequel to the 2011 hit movie "Insidious" could not follow up with the premise of the original, which is that the boy, and not the house, was haunted.
However, the fault on why sequels are still being produced rested on studio executives. "Insidious", which was made on a USD1.5 million budget and directed by James Wan, returned USD100 million. "The Exorcist" earned USD66.3 million in domestic releases on a USD10.5 million budget in 1974, and grossed USD441 million in sales to date. Moreover, the report also said that if the original creators weren't invested in the story expansion, the sequels were bound to be entirely different and no longer scarier than the original.
Although horror movies only have a marginal share in the film market, films in the horror genre are expected to generate high returns of investment rather than costly action or comedy films. This year, Wan's other horror film "The Conjuring", raked in over USD259 million in worldwide sales on a budget of USD20 million.
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